Throughout the ages people have had a desire to express themselves through music. Although the desire persists, many people remain musically-challenged and unfulfilled. Most people can sing on tune, and though many would also enjoy playing their own instrumental accompaniment, they do not learn how to play. Others may have no difficulty recognizing a tune but run into trouble when it comes to vocalizing that tune. Singing on key is difficult for some. Others may simply be too bashful to sing, but would welcome an instrumental outlet to satisfy their musical needs. Even those who can sing well often feel more comfortable with instrumental accompaniment, while the less gifted might welcome instrumental support to assist them to maintain a tune or to mask their vocal wanderings. In a small group setting people are more likely to break into song where some form of supportive musical accompaniment is available.
A guitar is the instrument most commonly used for accompaniment. This is likely due to its relative portability and the satisfaction it provides with simple rhythmic chord music. Though many guitars are sold, a significant percentage of them are seldom played. Many would-be guitarists would rather decline an opportunity to accompany a group of singing friends than risk embarrassment for being out of practice.
There is a perceived need for a musical instrument that would allow a novice musician to play extemporaneous guitar chord music. Such an instrument would need to be no less portable than a guitar. It should be capable of producing the true melodic sounds of an acoustic guitar, with an ability to produce the true rhythmic sounds of human-played strumming and finger-picking being a desirable bonus. Furthermore, the sought-after musical instrument should be simple to play, perhaps with only one hand, requiring a minimal number of controls. It need not be so complex as to enable the performance of a lead-guitarist, but must be supportive of simple rhythm-guitar music with little initial instruction and without ongoing practice. With such an instrument, many novices who would like to play a sing-along musical instrument, like a guitar, and who are able to sing on tune would be able to easily play good extemporaneous accompaniment music for themselves as well as for others. Even musicians who play band or orchestral instruments could use such a sing-along instrument.
Others have attempted to implement hand-held electronic musical instruments, especially to mimic the guitar in structure and in playing position. U.S. Des. Pat. No. 256,366 to Dworsky (1980) disclosed an instrument with a neck, and an elongated body. The body mounted a two-and-a-half octave keyboard. Disclosed in U.S. Des. Pat. No. 289,900 to Aitken et al (1987) was a synthesizing instrument with a long neck having twenty four frets with multiple playing positions each. In 1970, Radke was granted U.S. Pat. No. 3,541,912 for a synthesizing instrument described as “a guitarlike mounting for electric organ playing means” having a bank of 24 chord-selectors on the neck, and a two-and-a-half octave keyboard on its body. Evangelista's 1979 U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,705 disclosed an electronic guitar with as many as 66 or more flexible blade-type switch actuators on the neck simulating string-fingering positions, while the body had six short flexible vanes simulating strings to strum. An instrument with a neck having a 75 zone chord-selector was the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 6,111,179 issued to Miller in 2000. It also had a body with a touch-sensitive note selector that simulated a four-octave keyboard to provide more than 150 chords and four octaves of single notes. To a novice musician most of these chords would amount to unwanted clutter.
None of these five instruments would be easy for a novice to play. They offer no relief to the novice from the need to produce good rhythm. Neither do they disclose a means to easily play limited notes between strummed chords. All apparently synthesize instrument sounds so that the technology available at a given cost will always limit their ability to produce true guitar and banjo sounds. None of them will produce professional strumming and finger-picking sounds in the hands of a novice. Their mechanical interfaces lack the simplification necessary for a novice to strum or finger-pick a chord with one finger. There has been no apparent attempt by any of them to minimize the number of chord-types and music keys for use by novices. None of the cited examples preclude the most common errors committed by novices as they learn to play, nor do these instruments significantly reduce the amount of practice required in order to produce good music. Also, their complexities are not conducive to enabling the manufacture of an instrument at a price that is appropriately low for novices.
The Yamaha Corp. attempts to address the novice level of the musical instrument market with its EZ-AG and EZ-EG portable electronic guitars. The EZ-AG model resembles an acoustic guitar, while the similar EZ-EG model resembles an electric guitar. In actuality however, these instruments are not easier to play, just easier to learn. Automated fret-lights guide the learner, similar to the illuminated keys on some musical keyboards, but playing these instruments requires all of the same actions as for any normal guitar. They have six long fret selectors on their neck portions, simulating strings on each of the twelve fret-spaces. Six short strings in the strum area of the body are picked or strummed to create electronic inputs. They have set-up selectors, rotary controls, and an electronic readout panel to control a synthesizer to simulate real instrument sounds. Several guitar and bass guitar voices are available along with a banjo and other voices. In normal playing mode, one hand must create chords by accurately fingering fret-selectors as on a guitar. Simultaneously, the other hand must skillfully strum or pick the electronic-input strings. At about $400 (in 2004) these instruments seem somewhat expensive for novices.
One approach to simplifying a musical instrument for use by novices is to use only one chord-type for each chord. U.S. Pat. No. 4,682,526 issued in 1987 to R. Hall, et al. teaches against this approach. To Hall, et al. a single chord type throughout a song is not acceptably interesting due to a perceived tendency to become very mechanical, machine-like and monotonous. Therefore, the accompaniment apparatus of Hall, et al. automatically provides many complex chord permutations selected in a constrained random manner. Their patent discloses a keyboard with additional controls, which presents some difficulty for a novice to set-up and play. The patented apparatus only synthesizes instrument sounds which inherently requires programming, and associated additional controls, for music generation. With the importance given by Hall, et al. to avoid monotony, their patent fails to disclose either a method for easily playing notes between strummed chords or of finger-picking.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,935 to Morikawa, et al. describes a tone information processing device for an electronic musical instrument. The authors of this patent teach against simply replaying recorded waveshapes, suggesting that simple waveshape memory type instruments may not be commercially viable, since the mere reading out of recorded external sounds from memory results in rather monotonous playback having insufficient variation in the generated tones to make them interesting. However, Morikawa, et al. fail to disclose a method for easily playing notes between strummed chords or of finger-picking.
The Omnichord musical instrument from Suzuki Music Company is basically an electronic synthesizing autoharp that is self-contained and portable, with batteries and a speaker. Novices may be intimidated by the Omnichord's array of 27 playing selectors that choose between major, minor, and seventh chords in nine music keys. One finger selects among the chords, while the other hand strums a desired beat over a pick-up zone. This music is supplemented by accompaniment from a rhythm section having five rhythm-type selections.
The Omnichord fails to enable a novice to easily produce the music of a good solo rhythm guitar. Neither does it enable a novice to easily play embellishing limited notes between strummed chords. The Omnichord is also unable to produce the trueness of guitar and banjo sounds, or human-style finger-picking sounds. Its interface would need to be simplified for a novice to play one-finger chord strumming, chord finger-picking, or music-endings, and the choice of chord-types and music keys would need to be minimized for novices. Its selector arrangement doesn't appear to have been minimized to avoid playing errors for a novice, nor to eliminate practice in order to produce good music.
Suzuki's successor to the Omnichord is their more elaborate QChord Music Instrument, Model QC-1, which is advertised to be extremely easy for novices to play. It is said to play chords in a single-finger playing mode. Although it is promoted as a Digital Songcard Guitar to play songs that are pre-recorded on plug-in memory cards, it is basically an electronic autoharp with multiple voices and an intimidating array of 36 playing selectors. Claiming several guitar voices, a banjo voice, and other voices totaling 100 in all, it has a single-finger chording mode to produce simulated strummed-guitar chord music. However, in this mode it is unable to play in a guitar voice alone without accompaniment of the rhythm-section. It cannot play any finger-picked music.
Though it cannot simulate a lone guitar in this single-finger mode, the Qchord can be played in a manual strum mode without the rhythm-section. In this case one finger selects chords, while the other hand strums a desired beat over a pick-up zone, requiring some practice to strum acceptably. The fact that a 3/4-beat is unavailable in the one-finger mode restricts the Qchord from playing many songs.
The dual functions associated with several set-up selectors and eighteen of the playing selectors on Suzuki's QChord may be confusing to novice musicians. Some users will find that the overlay-template that temporarily re-labels these dual-function selectors in order to access some features is a nuisance. Set-up is slow since the user must remember instrument numbers, or look them up. To set-up a simple guitar or banjo voice requires the user to press two selectors and read an electronic panel.
The Qchord's 36-selector array is similar to the bass-section on an accordion, though fortunately only a few selectors are used per song. A prior knowledge of music is needed to select a second-dominant chord to play with the basic three-chord set. Novices have difficulty knowing which selector to use because associated selectors cannot all be collocated. Furthermore, different sets of selectors are utilized to play in each different music-key. These complications may result in many musical errors during play.
An electric string-less toy-guitar musical instrument was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,095,799 by Wallace, et al. It synthesizes notes in an electric-guitar voice. Eight manual-note buttons are located on the body, with eight pre-programmed track buttons on the neck to play rhythmic guitar music. A user may manually select notes ad-lib, or from segments of pre-arranged musical tracks. Manual buttons can also play special sound effects. The instrument synchronizes the transitions between musical tracks, allowing its user to jump from track-to-track at any time. Track buttons play four-measure long music phrases. The instrument also synchronizes manual notes played ad-lib and inserted over the track music. Proper tempo is sustained as manual notes play over the track music. The player is essentially in complete control of the music at all times. This instrument requires substantial music-oriented programming for synthesizing, synchronizing, sequencing, repeating, and special sound effects.
The instrument of Wallace, et al. plays only in the key of C, so it is unable to accommodate all voice ranges. This guitar has adjustable tempo, but only a 4/4-beat, precluding many songs that require a 3/4-beat. Though described as a toy, this instrument offers a synthesizer having substantial music-generation programming complexity, but one that requires a person to play note buttons on the body with one hand while playing rhythm on the neck with the other hand.
Another toy guitar, having four strings, was the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,668 to Segan, et al. It synthesizes notes in an electric-guitar voice. Buttons in twelve frets are in a circle-of-chords sequence. Four short strings are electronically tuned to lower four notes of a guitar for single-note play in lead-guitar mode. In chord mode, one can press a fret button and pick string #1 for major chords. Similarly, pick #2 for minor chords, #3 for seventh chords, and #4 for diminished chords. The beat is provided by the manual picking. In auto-mode, press fret buttons and strum any strings. Any strumming causes an automatic progression of pre-programmed chording for pretended play. Special sound effects can also be played using body-mounted controls.
This instrument is rather advanced for a toy, providing many music keys and chord-types, but has not been simplified for a novice. It plays a limited strum, but cannot play any finger-picking music. While offering many playing positions, it requires two hands to play ad-lib rhythm-guitar music.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,411 to H. Suzuki, et al. disclosed an electronic music apparatus of the waveshape memory type along with a method for inputting music-performance control data. It records, stores and alters control data extracted from tone waveforms. The waveforms are recorded from numerous acoustic musical instruments as they are actually played in various styles of rendition. For guitars, these styles include choking, bend-downup, gliss-up, gliss-down, grace-up, grace-down, chromatic-up, chromatic-down, staccato, tenuto, vibrato, slur, shortcut, mute, hammer-on, pull-off, slide-up, slide-down, crescendo, and decrescendo, among others. It also includes variations over time for volume, pitch, and tone color. Individual waveshapes are separated into leading, middle, and ending segments, called partial sounding segments. These are stored in a database to tailor and/or augment music recordings for replay. This can also be used to adapt and enhance live music performances in real time. All of this is to provide true instrument sounds with many realistic styles of rendition. For novices this system automatically plays accompaniment tailored to previously prepared songs, however this feature is not available to play ad-lib accompaniment music.
The quantity of rendition styles offered by this instrument is considerably greater than those needed for novices to play simple rhythm-guitar accompaniment music. The disclosed complex music apparatus is not self-contained, portable, or affordable. Decomposing, altering, and re-composing waveforms uses extensive programming, and associated additional controls. This instrument goes beyond the mere storage of music phrases and their replay as-recorded under simple microprocessor control. It requires training that is considerably beyond the novice to operate this complex music-editor in order to prepare tailored songs. In spite of the numerous rendition styles offered, this disclosure fails to address easy one-finger chord strumming, chord finger-picking, or chord music-endings. Furthermore, its interface is well beyond that which can be easily managed by a novice.
Chord organs and some electronic keyboards, allow a user to play chords with a single finger. This is to provide easy accompaniment with the left hand, while the right hand plays melodies. U.S. Pat. No. 3,013,462 to Combes disclosed an adapter with eight playing-keys, and is cited here to show how chord organs have been adapted for novices. This chord-selector add-on can mount on some synthesizing electrical chord-organs to simplify the playing for beginners. While some chord organs had an intimidating array of 96 chord selectors, this adapter reduced the count to a maximum of eight available chord selectors per song, thereby reducing the intimidation factor. It did require that electrical cables be disconnected and re-connected in a different arrangement to change the music key. This patent showed that simplified chording instruments are much needed, but the technique is applicable only to keyboard instruments and not to the guitar or banjo.
Numerous patents have issued on waveform-type music instruments for arbitrary replay of musical notes that have been pre-recorded from other musical instruments. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,340 McLoughlin disclosed a music memory that employed magnetic rotary drums. Paul Di Matteo's instrument for the storage of recorded music notes and chords on a rotary optical disc was the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,448 issued in 1977 at about the same time as Roland Guillemette received U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,729 for the use of magnetic tape loops to achieve a similar result. While these three patents disclosed various methods of replaying pre-recorded selections from various instruments, none of them addressed a method to play rhythm-guitar or rhythm-banjo music. Neither did they provide for pre-recorded music-endings. In all cases their focus was primarily on recordings of organ or piano notes which would be replayed via an organ-like keyboard which presents more difficulty than most novices are willing to attempt.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,913,443, Aaron Jewett disclosed a musical apparatus and method for producing chordal tone background music to accompany a conventional lead instrument such as a guitar. Jewett's apparatus comprised eight latching foot pedals, wherein actuation of any pedal would cause the release of a previously latched pedal. Each pedal served as a selector for the corresponding one of eight tape tracks that had been pre-recorded with the different chordal tones of a chord set. These track recordings were synchronized for quick changes between tracks without losing a beat. This apparatus is awkward to play since feet lack the playing dexterity of fingers. The latching bar and the foot operation preclude rapid playing of notes between strummed chords with these pedals. Many cassettes are required, a different one being necessary for each combination of instrument voice, music-key, beat, and tempo. Such a multitude of cassettes would be inconvenient to carry, select, and change, precluding rapid set-up changes in a walk-around performance.
A joystick system to play live music over pre-recorded background music was the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,212 issued to Rigopulos, et al. This instrument plays a free-style melody over a user-selected pre-recorded accompaniment background track. A user must wait for the background music to begin before being enabled to play an ad-lib melody. This system for music creation is complex and costly, using a computer to aid the simplified play by a novice. A user begins by selecting a desired experience-level to play, with the novice-level limiting access to some of the instrument's capabilities while providing greater assistance. The preferred embodiment is played with a two-axis joy-stick, one axis providing an increase or decrease in pitch while the other increases or decreases rhythmic activity. The first of three buttons on the joy-stick is the Play button which starts the replay of background music. It also inputs melody according to the position of the joy-stick. Pressing and holding the second button sustains the melody in play. The third button repeats a particular group of notes just previously created by the player. A computer keyboard, mouse or other input device can also be used in place of a joy-stick. A chord-builder circuit constructs synthesized chords based upon pre-programmed rules. In addition to melodies, this instrument does enable ad-lib play of pre-recorded special-effects phrases including pre-built chords.
Although Rigopulos, et al. state that users of their system need no knowledge of music theory or the ability to play an instrument or keep time, the total system appears too complex for an unassisted novice to set it up from scratch before play. Even if it is only the set-up and not its use that requires knowledge of music theory and computer skills, the total system with computer would be too costly for most novices. The system comprises many discrete components and therefore lacks portability during play. While the disclosed system is said to allow a user to do essentially anything that can be done with any traditional or known instrument, this may be overstated. It is also stated that the system can generate signals representative of audible music by synthesis or sample playback. However, since it is unable to play an accompaniment of ad-lib chord music with a single play button, apparently the term sample applies only to special effects sounds.
The electronic musical instrument disclosed by Yamaguchi in U.S. Pat. No. 5,286,912 has a microphone, several key pads, a tone generator, and a storage memory. The described embodiment places the microphone on the distal end of a neck, near the singer's mouth, with playing switches on the hand-held body. This instrument is designed to allow a singer to easily take part in background play while singing a song. Pre-stored synthesized music phrases can be replayed by the key pads. Sequential combination of some phrases can produce ad-lib play. Yamaguchi's instrument can play progressions of preprogrammed synthesized chord phrases, apparently without background music. Singing and background signals are processed and output by a tone generator. Music pieces are pre-stored as note data strings on exchangeable memory cards. These define voice (color), key, timing, duration, volume, and chord progression data for chord development. The instrument also has a pitch shift circuit to create a voice duet from a voice solo. The key-on phrase play data is read out in units of phrases. Therefore, when a key pad is pressed, phrase tones for several bars are played back. An ad-lib key-on phrase play is made by pressing arbitrarily selected key pads for every several bars. This synthesizing instrument requires extensive strings of music-oriented programmed data. The programming includes composing, generating, permuting, timing, and repeating of notes, chords, and music phrases. Although quite capable, this instrument fails the novice due to the complexity of its many well-intended features. Further, this instrument does not disclose easy, rapid playing of notes between strummed chords, nor automated music endings.
Takabayashi's U.S. Pat. No. 6,031,174 disclosed an electronic apparatus and method for the generation of musical phrases. This apparatus provides an ad-lib melody music play over a rhythmic back-performance music piece. It comprises a game pad, computer, tone generator, and a speaker. The game pad has six buttons that may be pressed together in different combinations. These combinations generate address numbers 1 through 24 for the selection of solo melody phrases that must have been previously prepared for each music piece, apparently to correlate with the back-performance music piece. This apparatus generates solo musical tone signals by the phrase. A direction key on the game pad moves in eight compass-like directions to increase or decrease pitch, tempo, and volume. Two other direction keys can be custom-set for the chosen instrument voice. Users can improvise solo melody musical performance by switching between phrases with game pads. When the user selects a phrase and its start timing, the apparatus reads out the pre-stored performance data from its phrase memory and generates an associated tone signal. It is disclosed that even a novice without knowledge of musical instruments and music can play melody music with simple operations. The apparatus also generates a back-performance of rhythm music, such as drums and bases, by automatic performance techniques. In this mode the user starts the back performance which then progresses independently from the game pads. The user can also select special effects, like pitch bend. This synthesizing instrument requires extensive music-oriented programmed data strings as it does far more than to simply store and replay as-recorded music phrases under simple microprocessor control.
Takabayashi's apparatus does not enable one to play extemporaneous rhythmic chord music accompaniment, as a guitar, for an ad-lib singing performance. Instead, it uses automatic performance techniques to provide rhythmic background music, and enables a novice to extemporaneously select different melody phrases, that have been specially prepared in advance for selectable predetermined songs. As with so many others, Takabayashi's total system is too complex for a novice to set it up from scratch before play as it requires computer skills as well as knowledge of music. The total system with computer is too costly for most novices. Comprising many interconnected pieces, the lack of self-containment denies portability to this system during play. The requirement to press as many as three buttons simultaneously is confusing for novices.
Altogether, the above-mentioned instruments fail to enable the novice to easily produce an ad-lib rhythmic chord music accompaniment, such as rhythm guitar music and rhythm banjo music. They also fail to enable the novice to easily play embellishing notes between strummed chords for personal creativity. Their interfaces lack support for a novice to play one-finger chord strumming, chord finger-picking, or music-endings. Chord types and music keys have not been minimized for novices. Most playing errors have not been precluded, so that some amount of practice is necessary in order to produce good music, and the arrangements of selectors have not been conducive to a novice's playing with confidence without fear of making many musical errors.
The foregoing discussion of the work done by others is intended to develop a sense of the need for the many varied aspects addressed by the present invention that have been overlooked, neglected or denied by others. While the myriad of previous instruments may be suitably employed for their intended purposes, individually they lack suitability for the purpose which will be satisfied by the electronic instrument disclosed hereafter. Additionally, there has been no suggestion in the aforementioned patents to combine the features of one into another. There remains a need for an easily-played accompaniment-music instrument. Such an instrument should produce simple ad-lib rhythm-guitar music, and rhythm-banjo music, in a format that is preferably portable during play and optionally self-contained. For the novice who is capable of singing on tune, it should provide, with little or no practice, a means for easily playing chords and notes between strummed chords. It should allow enough freedom of musical expression to enable a novice to exercise sufficient personal creativity to attain an appropriate level of musical satisfaction.